StarLancer was set between the years 2160 (the start of the Solar War), and 2162. The War lasted "almost a hundred years", so make that 2250, we don't how long the voyage to the Sirius Sector took, but as they were sleeper ships it was probably in the region of years. As an arbitary number we'll say 5 years. So 2255 would be 1AS. So thats 3055AD. A looooooooong time from now

707th Silver Dragons
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yup..about the year 3000...

strange, human didn't progress so far other than the cardamine.

Then again, some people expected mass space travel in the year 2000. It's already 2003 and we still have problem with space shuttles.

..and I just wonder, where do I buy one of those?...

Well, the time it took to travel to Sirius is irrelevant, because the narrator says the sleeper ships broke the blockade 800 years before. That should include the time it took to reach Sirius. Anyway, it sounded like an approximation.

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Then again, some people expected mass space travel in the year 2000. It's already 2003 and we still have problem with space shuttles.

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Ain't that the truth... I grew up watching movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey at a time when airlines like Pan Am was pre-booking flights to the Moon as part of a public relations campaign. Where are those SSTO passenger shuttles to low earth orbit space stations run by Hilton and moon colonies Arthur C Clarke said we were supposed to have by 2001?!?

Sometimes science fiction becomes science fact... Unfortunately this is one of the few things that hasn't. Ah vell...

eventually even space gets boring, and who want to spend his money to get bored? at least that is the way the US goverment funds the NASA as they have to explain that to the taxpayer.

I was wondering that myself, it's a safe bet to assume FL is around 3000 A.D. And I'm also assming that 1/1/0 A.S (After Sol?) was the day the Sleeper ships launched. The Liberty landed in the year 1 A.S, so maybe the voyage to Sirius took 10 months?
Another problem I thought of was planetary revolutions. It's very unlikely that every settled planet in the Sirius Sector goes around a star ever 365 days. I am guessing that all the Merchants and Navies have a sort of "Standard Year" that operates regardless to planetary orbits. Maybe say that Manhattan has one full orbit every 400 Earth days. New Tokyo might oribit in 56 days... So, maybe the standard year is a measurement based on something else...

Yeah. For the convenience of interstellar commerce, it makes sense to have a standard universal time.

As far as orbital periods of terraformed planets go, I think it would depend on what kind of star the planet orbits.

If the star is a typical G2V spectral class/luminosity main sequence star with mass like good ol' Sol, then the orbital period of a planet in the "Goldilocks zone" would be around an Earth year. If the star is a hotter-burning, bluer, heavier star like Sirius (Alpha Canis Major, which is an A1V), the Goldilocks zone would be further out and a terraformed habitable planet might take tens of years to orbit. Even bigger stars might have goldilocks zones that takes hundred(s) of years to orbit.

It would be a very cool, dim star indeed if it only takes a habitable planet 50-some-odd days to orbit though (Goldilocks zone very close-in).

I see what you mean.. But I'm just wondering how planets near Dwarf stars are able to form Terrestrial like enviroments.. (Hehehe.. Green Dwarf star...)

Another problem- Planetary revolutions. Like the backround info states, New Berlin takes a year to rotate. What is a "year"? How many hours does it take Manhattan to Rotate? All these things would make a Stellar Cartographer or a Navigator go space crazy and shove himself out an airlock.

Yeah, planetary rotation periods depends on lots of factors, some of which are only theoretical at the moment. But we do know that satellites affect rotation; for example, the moon through gravity exerts some angular momentum on earth's rotation (like how if you swing a bucket filled with water on a rope its momentum tends to swing through in a circle).

And the moon itself doesn't rotate because it is tidally locked to the planet earth.

Also, collisions affect rotation too. It was theorized some big huge collision with perhaps a protoplanet tilted Uranus so its axis of spin is almost horizontal with the sun's orbital plane.

Orbital mechanics as described by Sir Isaac Newton..

isnt also meant to have made one od uranuses moons....

i cannot believe i just said that... i hope your all mature...

the moon is Callisto i think

Meh

I believe you are right. Our solar system is full of wierd moons yes... I think the most memorable moon for Sci-Fi fans in our system has to be Mimas (which orbits Saturn), also known as The Death Star. Heh heh...

"Excellent... Signal Vice Admiral Thrawn to launch his Tie Fighter squadrons immediately."

heh, u guys are all caught, u sed uranus! heheh

Shigetah shigatah shwa[!